Moral Outrage: Probation in Child Sex, Human-trafficking Case

Less welcome at Northpark than Dez Bryant

 

 A staple of local news and the national nightly cable news programs is what I like to call a "moral outrage" story where some reprehensible individual is given an extremely light sentence after committing a particularly reprehensible crime. Today's entry from the Fort Worth Star Telegram:

A former soldier pleaded guilty on Wednesday to human trafficking and sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to 10 years deferred adjudication probation.
Nathan Tatarko, 31, of Alba was accused of giving alcohol and drugs to a 14-year-old girl he picked up at a mall, having sex with her, and later making her have sex for money.
According to Fort Worth police, the girl was dropped off at Ridgmar Mall on Aug. 11 and was walking outside in the rain when Tatarko pulled up and asked her if she wanted to get in his vehicle. She climbed in, police said.
Tatarko gave her alcohol to drink and later took her to visit Reed. The trio did drugs, and both men had sex with the girl, police said.
During the next few days, Tatarko drove the girl to gaming businesses where he had her strip for customers for money, police said. He later took her to a gas station where he had her solicit sex for money from a man, police said.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/03/27/4733765/ex-soldier-gets-probation-in-child.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/03/27/4733765/ex-soldier-gets-probation-in-child.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/03/27/4733765/ex-soldier-gets-probation-in-child.html#storylink

Ex-Soldier Gets Probation

I looked the guy up and he also had a prior DWI in 2005 and a Burglary of a Vehicle conviction just last November.

The comments on FB and ST.com fall into the following categories: 1) outrage that he will have a "clean record," 2) result of prison overcrowding & 3) blame the judge.
 1) Clean Record
From the article:

If Tatarko completes the conditions of his probation on the sexual assault charge, he will not have that conviction on his record.

This is dead wrong. First, he is going to him a lifetime sex offender registration requirement. Yes, he did get deferred adjudication, which normally means in Texas that he would be eligible to have the offense taken off his record after the successful completion of probation plus an additional 5 years (2 years for a misdemeanor) during which he has to stay out of trouble (no Class B's or better).  HOWEVER, Tex. Govt. Code § 411.081(e)(1) specifically excludes any offense requiring sex offender registration (and a bunch of other stuff). So no dice on getting these charges off his record.

2) Prison Overcrowding
Texas has surprising been very progressive (I'm not using that word in a liberal/conservative sense) in enacting smart legislation that has kept lower level offenders out of prison and paroled prisoners that don't need to be behind bars on the State's dime.  Even better, with the exception of Harris County, the large county governments have gotten smarted in response to their on prisoner population crises in their respective counties. Further, when a county convicts someone of a 1st degree felony they go into the state jail system, as opposed to the county jail. The state picks up the tab and the county is done with them.  While it is true that the county collects more fees if the person is on probation that is not going to turn a normal 50 year sentence into a 10 year probation, it really would only work on the margins.

3) Outrage at the Judge
This was by far the most common comment I saw and it is based on a misunderstanding of how the criminal justice system actually works day to day. When you go into court any plea deal is struck between the District Attorney and the defense attorney. The judge's only interaction is the acceptance of that deal by way of a guilty plea.  So, you sign a plea offer, go before the judge and he takes your "guilty," then sentences you to what is on the plea sheet. He has the option to refuse to accept the plea but this is very, very rare in large county that can have well over 100 cases on their docket every day. And in this case the judge Sharen Wilson easily has the sternest reputation in the courthouse and he even been known to yell at a jury in open court after giving a not guilty verdict out.
I can tell you from personal experience that the Tarrant DA is no friend to sex offenders, I would go as far as to say calling them "objectively unreasonable" on the issue is giving them far to much credit.  The child sex cases are assigned to a specific unit in the DA's office called "Crimes Against Children Unit."  You don't get that job by being a pushover.
So what happened here?  You got a tough judge plus a DA that normally won't play ball.  What I think happened is that your only witness is a chaotic 14 year old girl that probably is involved in drugs, alcohol and who knows what else on her non-public juvenile record--Think Jerry Springer.  Add that with a war veteran and maybe you do have a situation where the DA goes for a probation deal. BTW, 10 years is the maximum number of years you can get. I'm not trying to say this outcome is right or wrong, I'm just trying to clear up some misconceptions from too much Law & Order viewing.

Amanda Knox: Worst Roommate Ever

Oh, hai.

I got a few emails bout Amanda Knox, the legal situation is a bit complex and confusion because Italian criminal law is so different from American.

1) Will she actually be re-tried??

Yes, I think it is likely she gets re-tried in Italian court--but with a big ****, she will likely be tried in absentia (without her there) for reasons discussed below.

2) Will she be extradited either pre-trial or post conviction?

Not just "No" but "Hell, No."  The court has discretion whether to order her back for the second trial, but from what I have read that is unlikely for political and practical reasons.
The more interesting case is if she were to be convicted during the second trial.  First, she would have an appeal to the Italian Supreme court much the same way her original conviction was thrown out. Second, the Italian government would have to convince the U.S. to extradite her. That is where it get's interesting.

There is a legal theory that will usually stop extradition called "dual criminality."  Dual criminality required that the crime in County B (Italy) that seeks extradition must also be a crime in Country A (USA). So a good example would be when one of these Muslim countries "convicts" an American for some sort of blasphemy or religious offense that is punishable by death. Since we have the First Amendment this is not a crime in this country, hence extradition to County A would not happen. This is an extreme example since we don't have extradition treaties with Iran, but really not out of the realm of possibility considering countries like Germany have criminalized Holocaust denial.

So, clearly murdering your roommate is a crime in both countries. The interesting part is that the countries differ substantially in the procedural right of double jeopardy under the Fifth Amendment.
Amanda Knox was acquitted after the Italian trial. Today some sort of appeals court through that acquittal out and ordered a new trial.  That could never happens in the U.S. legal system because a retrial (and even appeal) is barred by double jeopardy. Since the Italian courts didn't follow the U.S. Constitutional rule then the extradition is likely off the table. 

Reynosa Dangerous

A 3 hour shootout that paralyses an entire city. Trucks stolen from car dealership to block all major city streets. "Truckloads" of bodies.  Sound like Afghanistan?  This happened on your border last week and the media won't/can't even report about it.

Reynosa is a Mexican border city of 1.7 million people that sits across from McAllen, Texas about 50 miles West of South Padre Island. In 2010 the New York Times published a feature story that chronicled the de facto news blackout with respect to drug violence within the city.

REYNOSA, Mexico — The big philosophical question in this gritty border town does not concern trees falling in the forest but bodies falling on the concrete: Does a shootout actually happen if the newspapers print nothing about it, the radio and television stations broadcast nothing, and the authorities never confirm that it occurred? Traffickers have gone after the media with a vengeance in these strategic border towns where drugs are smuggled across by the ton. They have shot up newsrooms, kidnapped and killed staff members and called up the media regularly with threats that were not the least bit veiled. Back off, the thugs said. Do not dare print our names. We will kill you the next time you publish a photograph like that.

Fearing Drug Cartels, Reporters in Mexico Retreat

Thing have only gotten worse in the past 3 years. Last Saturday:

REYNOSA — Two SUVs rolled up to a house Tuesday in the Quintas gated community and nearly a dozen men climbed out, sporting assault rifles and body armor.

They kicked open the door and raided the property, while some of the men maintained a perimeter around the block.

Gulf Cartel infighting reignites with Reynosa firefights
The drug gangs are so bold that they literally have their own gang uniforms.

 It may have looked like just another day at the office for a SWAT team, but this wasn’t the police. The lettering on the commandos’ vests read “CDG” for “Cartel Del Golfo.”

The gang was there to execute a hit order on Michael “Gringo” Villarreal(the cartel equivalent of an early retirement party).

“An order was given to erase everything and everyone that had ties to El Gringo,” said a source outside law enforcement with direct knowledge of criminal activity in Tamaulipas. “The estacas (foot soldiers) have been told to kill them and keep the loot — cars, guns, money, whatever.”

The gunman went to 6 local car dealerships and stole over 20 cars in order to block the main thoroughfares throughout the city. The cartel body count apparently exceeded three dozen but is impossible to confirm because the Mexican Government won't confirm the incident.
The most shocking part about this incident is the refusal of the American Media to cover this issue. A Google New search of "Reynosa" only results in 3 news stories on the shootout (one from the paper the Rio Grande Monitor and two from television sites) I have been following the drug war in Mexico for years and I was shocked at this violence, how shocked would the average person on the street be? 
The War on Drugs has been extremely costly socially here at home. But in out of sight, out of mind Mexico it has directly resulted in over 50,000 deaths and the complete breakdown of government in the North where there might as well be a civil war going on. Is this really all worth the cost?

Your Post-Daylight Savings Week Link Dump

Last weekend's time distortions carried their way into the week leading to some bizarre happenings--2 of which don't even involve the state of Florida:

Some special asshole in Austin managed to flip his car on the I-35 access road in Austin.  Normally not that big of a deal unless you happen to flip said car into a new car lot.  The guy flipped his car ON TOP of the first row of cars and proceeded to roll his way down the line of new vehicles. Nine vehicles totaled, another nine damaged. Perhaps more impressively he managed to jog away from the scene at a healthy pace. Probably running a half-marathon, after all this is Austin we are talking about. #13.1
 Crash Damages 18 Hyundai (What is the plural of "Hyundai?")

There was less damage in the Bigfoot scene in Roadhouse.

An "unnamed expert" out of the Ukraine is claiming that "militarized dolphins" have escaped from their handlers in the Ukraine.  The dolphins were part of a covert defense program designed to disarm (or trigger) underwater mines and even attack enemy diver with "knives or pistols strapped to the dolphin's head."  We can leave aside the question of how a dolphin fires a pistol strapped to its head because the "Flipper 3" have escaped to the open ocean apparently for mating season.  I'd rather surf with a Great White than a horny stabbin' dolphin.


Ukraine Might Have Military Trained Killer Dolphins Might Have Escaped

Obligatory Denial:
Ukraine Defense Ministry Denies Weaponized Dolphin Escape

We can't leave out Florida:

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- A teenager is recovering after police say he shot himself in the penis and testicle while cleaning a gun he just bought.
It happened Thursday morning at a home on the 200 block of Verada Street in Port St. Lucie.
Police say 18-year-old Michael Smeriglio first lied to police saying someone shot him while he was walking down the street. After being questioned by police he admitted to accidentally doing it himself.
Doctors say the bullet went through his penis, his left testicle and then lodged itself in his thigh.
Smeriglio told police he bought the gun last month at a party.
While police were investigating at the home where it happened, they discovered marijuana in the house. That led to the arrest of the homeowner Joseph Lamar James, 22, on drug charges.

Florida Teen Shoots His Own Junk Off

New Brewery Legislation in Texas

Cheers !!!

In keeping with the theme of this blog I felt the need to give a quick update on some important legislation currently making it's way through the Texas Legislature.  Anyone who has been to the "tour" at Rahr Brewery has asked the same question: "Why the F can I only get 3 beers?!?!?"  Turns out it was a consequence of the State's antiquated alcohol laws. The last update to the state law was in 1993 back when Miller Lite could be considered a small batch beer.
The new rules allow breweries to sell beer on site (say for like a $1.00) and also be able to bottle small batch beer for sale locally with only a $250.00 state fee. The bill has made it through what is  called "committee," a huge hurdle, and is backed by both small and big beer interests. Look for it to become law by September 1, 2013.

Highlights:

Highlights of the beer-related bills passed Tuesday by the Senate Committee on Business & Commerce:

• On-site sales for breweries: Production breweries that make less than 225,000 barrels of beer annually would be allowed to sell up to 5,000 barrels’ worth directly to customers for consumption on site each year. Take-away beer and growler fills to go still would be prohibited.
• Off-site sales for brewpubs: Brewpubs could make up to 10,000 barrels of beer annual and sell some on site and package beer for off-site retail sales. Once it reaches the 10,000-barrel limit, a brewpub would have to switch to a production brewery license or stop growing.
• New limits on self-distribution: Breweries that produce up to 125,000 barrels annually would be allowed to self-distribute up to 40,000 barrels. Out-of-state breweries also would be allowed some self-distribution rights.
• Distribution rights: Breweries could not receive payment from wholesalers for the right to distribute their beer in specific geographic regions. The breweries would be allowed, however, to continue to share marketing, promotional and some other costs with distributors.
• Note: The legislation moves forward as Senate Bills 515, 516, 517, 518 and 639.

http://blog.chron.com/beertx/2013/03/beer-legislation-passes-committee-on-path-to-senate/

Detroit: It's So Cold in the D

Detroit is best known as the home of America's automobile industry but is more currently becoming the country's first large failed city.  So of the statistics are staggering. The population of the city has fallen 25% to 700,000 since 2000. That's right, 1 in 4 residents picked up and moved.  Copper thieves have plunged the city's highways into darkness. The mayor has openly suggested bulldozing of houses to improve home values. Half of property owners are overdue with their property taxes. It's been the butt of one of the most hilarious Onion headline ever.

Then today the man
who was mayor from 2002 - 2008 was convicted of corruption in one of the most blatant pay-for-play scandals you will ever see.

Kilpatrick could face more than 10 years in prison for two dozen convictions, from racketeering conspiracy to bribery to tax crimes. Once hailed as a hip, young big-city leader, he was portrayed at trial as an unscrupulous politician who took kickbacks, rigged contracts and lived far beyond his means.
"Kwame Kilpatrick didn't lead the city. He looted the city," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in victory.Separately, fundraiser Emma Bell said she gave Kilpatrick more than $200,000 as his personal cut of political donations, pulling cash from her bra during private meetings at city hall. A high-ranking aide, Derrick Miller, told jurors that he often was the middle man, passing bribes from others.
Internal Revenue Service agents said Kilpatrick spent $840,000 beyond his salary as mayor, from 2002 to fall 2008.

This all comes at a time when the state is about to appoint an emergency manager the personally oversee Detroit's finances in order to avoid a massive (and ultimately unavoidable) municipal bankruptcy. The city itself has over $14 billion in long term obligations mostly in the form of pension liabilities and bond payments. That adds up to around $20,000 PER RESIDENT for existing long term debt-- at the number how do they ever hope to pay for CURRENT services like police and fire????

The legacy of Motown has given way to "It's so cold in the D."

If you have an hour to kill check out http://www.forgottendetroit.com/, it's a blog that chronicles the abandoned and forgotten buildings in the city.

College Level Game Theory

"Now I'm waiting for reports from some of you... Listen, I'm not joking. This is my job!"

A computer science professor at John Hopkins had the following policy for exam grading on a curve:

[E]ach class’s highest grade on the final counts as an A, with all other scores adjusted accordingly. So if a midterm is worth 40 points, and the highest actual score is 36 points, “that person gets 100 percent and everybody else gets a percentage relative to it,” said Fröhlich.

This is a really bad policy for at least two reasons. The first is that the highest grade on the test is very likely to be an outlier when compared to the distribution of the rest of the class.  For example the highest grade  could be a 36 while the class average is 18 and the second lowest grade is 25.  This would result in the high score being 100%, the second highest score being 69.4% and the class average being 50%.  The only passing grade would be be the top scoring outlier.  Not exactly an ideal result.
The second reason this is a bad idea is that collusion among the students could result in every student getting the same grade which would result in every student getting a perfect score of 100%... and that is exactly what happened here.

“The students refused to come into the room and take the exam, so we sat there for a while: me on the inside, they on the outside,” Fröhlich said. “After about 20-30 minutes I would give up.... Then we all left.” The students waited outside the rooms to make sure that others honored the boycott, and were poised to go in if someone had. No one did, though.

This is a really good example of a basic game theory problem played out in the real world.  Usually this wont work because a single individual has a massive incentive to cross the picket line and be the only person taking the exam.  As long as they score a single point then their grade will be 100% and everyone else will get 0%.  The reason that didn't happen here was the use of peer pressure by waiting outside the exam room to make sure no one went in and being ready to run in and take the exam if necessary.
There is a lesson to be learned here.  People are very, very good about gaming a system. Whether it is unemployment, food stamps, etc., people will make decisions that maximize their utility and not give a shit about the consequences to the government or others.  The key from a policy standpoint is to make sure that you don't create "moral hazards" where people are incentive to keep accepting benefits rather than go out and get a job.  Do you know why they always ask how much your annual income is when you buy life insurance?  Most companies won't write a policy for more than 10-15 times your annual income (make $100k a a year then max out at $1.5 million in coverage).  The reason for the limit is that at some point your wife will start doing to math that a few million dollars sounds a lot better than having her boring husband around leading to some "accidents."  Moral Hazard indeed.
http://www.volokh.com/2013/02/17/when-everyone-wins-with-a-zero

A could other funny examples of college classroom shenanigans:

Carry a student to your final exam:
http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/openbook.asp
(I highly recommend an Asian girl, their weight/smarts ratio is unparalleled)

The "Do you know who I am??" blue book toss:
http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/doyouknow.asp

The reverse blue book toss gambit:
http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/stolen.asp




The "Bird Foot" exam:
http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/birdfoot.asp

The old "eraser clock throw:"
http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/eraser.asp